(no subject)

[petitebelette]

Title: A Lover’s Alibi (Chapter Four)
Rating: NC-17
Pairing: Gabriel/Elle
Authors: superkappa and petitebelette
Summary: Elle decides to tell Gabriel the truth and stay with him instead of betraying him. Chapter Four: Gabriel takes Elle to meet his mother.
Author’s Note: This is the epic that we’ve been working on/talking about for a while now based on our Rps. dragynflies, who wins at life.


Elle was completely ready for this. Completely poised. She had an innocent, sweet-as-sugar smile on her face and a dress that covered her knees. She was so ready to be thrust into the unfamiliar terrifying territory of meeting Gabriel's mother.

Oh, god. She wasn't ready for this at all.

Breathe, she ordered herself. One, two. One, two. She fidgeted with the little cardigan she was wearing and hoped her hair look okay-and it should, she'd spent hours on it.

For the... oh, five-thousandth time since that fateful awful phone call, Elle wished she could have just... not had to ask Gabriel at that very moment if he was coming to bed. So loudly. And perhaps in those exact words and not what she'd really said. Something about getting her off already or whatever; unimportant piece of information.

Oh, god.

It hadn't taken more than three days of living with Gabriel to realize he was a momma's boy, which was pretty... okay, it annoyed her a little. But it was fine. It was his mother.

She steeled herself and straightened her spine.

She could do this. She'd done a lot more dangerous things in her life.

Maybe.

If Elle was nervous than Gabriel was close to having a panic attack. Introducing Elle to his mother had been something he planned on working towards over time. And he certainly never planned on telling his mother he was living with Elle (or in sin, as she had put it).

But after that fateful phone call, he didn't have a lot of choices. His mother had insisted on meeting the "harlot" who was tempting her son.

Which is why he was knocking on his mother's door, dressed in the outfit she had gotten him for his last birthday.

Virginia came out and cupped Gabriel's face, ignoring Elle. "My Gabriel, it's good to see you."

Elle's smile dropped marginally into disgust as some woman dressed for Little House on the Prairie stepped out of the apartment and smooshed Gabriel's face between her hands.

She fixed her smile quickly, not that it mattered. She was being ignored.

Maybe that was for the best. She could fade into the background or something. Eat very little, say nothing. Like she wasn't even there. Whew, problem solved.

"Mom, it's nice to see you," Gabriel replied as his mother stroked and petted his face and hair, the way she always did. A little too touchy feely, but it made her happy, so he didn't protest it.

He finally pulled away, wrapping his arm around Elle. "This is my girlfriend, Elle."

Virginia pursed her lips. She clearly did not approve. "This is the girl who's been taking advantage of you then?"

Gabriel frowned. "Mom, it isn't like that."

Or not. Solution foiled. Darn.

She inwardly sneered at the woman's comment.

She tried to smile graciously and brush off Virginia's not-so-underhanded slight. "Not, it's okay, Gabriel," she said, and tried to look understanding. "Of course she thinks so badly of me! Keeping her son all to myself. Hi, Mrs. Grey." She turned on her charm. "Gabriel talks so much about you. It's nice to meet you."

"That's funny," Virginia paused, standing aside to let them in. "He's never mentioned a word about you to me."

Gabriel awkwardly followed his mother inside. "I was waiting for the right time, that's all."

She turned around to look at Gabriel. "And when would that have been? You used to tell me everything, Gabriel."

Ouch, okay. But Elle had been treated a lot worse. She'd been the pink elephant in the room plenty of times. (Although it didn't make her feel any less unwanted in the long run.)

This woman, Elle thought, clearly needed to chill out.

Elle couldn’t help but let her eyes dart around the small living room and modest kitchen, blinking without expression at all the snow globes. Everywhere. On everything. To... each their own, she supposed.

She didn’t say anything; she had a feeling she’d make it through the evening better off if she said as little as possible.

Gabriel bit his tongue at his mother's words. There was plenty he didn't tell her these days, for her own sake. How would she react if she knew he had murdered someone?

She'd probably call him the devil and throw him out.

So instead, he diverted her attention. "This one is new." He indicated one of the snow globes.

Virginia smiled. "One of my friends brought it to me, just a few more, and I'll have the whole continent."

"Neat," Elle lied in a small voice, moseying over to Gabriel's side to look at the globe. She never really understood the magic of those things. Just shake it up and put it down. Shake it up and put it down. Where was the excitement? "How long have you been collecting them?" She figured an attempt at small talk would be polite.

"Years now, since before I was blessed with my Gabriel," Virginia beamed proudly.

"She has the most impressive collection of them I've ever seen."

"You've seen others?" The teasing words are out of her mouth before she could stop them, and her quirked smile directed at Gabriel faltered for a moment. "I mean-it is impressive."

"She used to take me to see other collections when I was a child," Gabriel said with a frown. More proof of his mundane existence.

"Gabriel used to do everything with me; I was always his favorite woman," Virginia preened.

"That's... really nice," she said, and swallowed down a pang of longing. Weird or not, Gabriel had a mother. Hers was dead. She mentally shook herself and tried to seem interested-and she was actually interested in what Gabriel's snow globe-filled childhood was like-but maybe without his mom's creepy possessive comments. "So... what makes a snow globe collection impressive? Price, what's in them, what?" She touched one of the rims of the nearest globe, brushing her fingers against Gabriel's both innocently and intentionally.

"A combination," Gabriel commented, approaching a particularly ornate one. "Like this one has a gold plated base and hand painted sculptures inside."

"Gabriel gave that to me for Mother's day last year."

She leaned in close and narrowed her eyes, peering into the one Gabriel had pointed out-it was nice, and the detail was impressive. She guessed there was more to snow globes than she first discerned. (She still didn't understand collecting them, but whatever.) "Pretty," she said. At least Gabriel had nice taste.

Gabriel walked away from the snow globe as he noticed an old clock on the wall. He approached it carefully, listening. "This clock is off. How long has it been telling the wrong time?" he asked, already beginning to pull it off the wall.

Virginia waved her hand dismissively. "It's been broken for years, I've been thinking of throwing it out."

Elle smiled a little as he pulled it off the wall, his movements and voice thick with impulse. Over the last few weeks, she'd developed a fondness for his little love affair with fixing the time-and things in general. It was kind of uncanny how his judgment and actions were so precisely... accurate. Elle suspected it had something to do with his hunger to understand things.

"He can't help himself," she told Virginia with a knowing smile. "Now he has to fix it."

Gabriel was getting out the set of tools he kept here, sliding on the glasses he used as he sat down at the table to start working on the clock. The poor thing. It just needed some attention.

"He could do so much more with his life than just being a watchmaker," Virginia protested, running her fingers through Gabriel's hair as he worked. "My Gabriel is special. He could be anything he wanted, if he just put his mind to it."

Elle huffed out a breath and bit the inside of her lips. The things his mother didn't know. She could help but bristle a bit at the touchy feely insistent way she was stroking Gabriel's hair, either, and how she was talking about him like he was a... a show horse with untapped potential or something.

Like The Company talked about Gabriel, only without that undercurrent of cautionary fear.

She balled her hands into fists and stubbornly sat next to Gabriel at the table without even being offered the seat. "What's wrong with being a watchmaker?" she asked, trying to keep the sharpness from her tone.

Gabriel tried to tune it out as he focused on his watch. His mother went on and on about this sort of stuff every time he visited her. How she knew this friend or that person who he should call who could help him get a job he had absolutely no training for and no desire to do. That he was wasting his life in that shop, just like his father had.

Virginia's lips pursed a little. She clearly wasn't comfortable about being challenged by this new woman in Gabriel's life. "It's ordinary. It's more of a hobby than a real job. He was made to be so much more than that."

"But I like fixing watches, Mom," he finally butted in, his voice tinged with frustration. Why couldn't that be enough for her?

"But you're so special, Gabriel. Don't you want more out of life?"

He did, but if his mother knew the lengths he had taken to become truly special... He shook his head. She could never know about that.

Elle watched the exchange with pursed lips, knowing without a doubt this was a usual argument they had.

"There's nothing wrong with just living a normal life," she said evenly, even though she was seething a little inside. "That doesn't make him any less special, all due respect."

At this point she was past trying to earn approval, and reassuringly placed a hand on Gabriel's knee under the table.

"But he deserves so much more than that," Virginia insisted. "He deserves better than fixing watches and living with some harlot who can't even support herself."

Gabriel's expression darkened for a moment and he removed his glasses as he paused from his work. "She isn't a harlot, Mom." His mother was the only person in the world he knew who would still use a word like that as an insult.

"Those words I heard her saying to you that night when we are the phone, they were hardly proper. What would the pastor say if he knew you were living in sin, with some woman outside of the church?"

"I wouldn't know. I haven't gone to church in a while, Mom."

She flinched back at the insult; for all the ones she'd suffered, one coming from an angry mother still packed a bit of a punch. Especially since it was true, and she couldn't support herself.

And yet, after the surprise, she was torn between zapping the woman and giggling madly at the absurdity of her comments. She was determined to keep a straight face, and was distracted by Gabriel standing up for her, and how he probably wouldn't appreciate her doing either.

"I care about your son," she bit out fiercely. "I'm not just some slut, and hello, it's the 21st century."

"If you cared about him, you would try to be helping him instead of leading him into a life of sin," Virginia insisted.

Gabriel had never expected things to go well, but on the other hand, he had hoped, perhaps foolishly, that they would go better than they were. He wanted to point out that Elle had given up so much to be with him, to help him, but doing so would be opening up a whole other can of worms that he didn't want his mother knowing about.

"She's not leading me into a life of sin. Do you know how boring my life was before? Why can't it be enough that I'm happy?" His voice cracked a little in frustration. He loved his mother, but there were reasons why he didn't visit her more often.

Virginia sucked in her breath, cupping his face gently. "But I want you to be happy, Gabriel. I want to see you happy, and successful. But you keep settling for less than what you deserve from life. What mother would be happy watching her son do that?"

This was just wrong, on so many levels. This woman didn't know the first thing about sin. She didn't know the first thing about Elle, or her relationship with Gabriel, and she sure as hell didn't know the first thing about what Gabriel wanted and would make him happy. This wasn't about him, Elle realized. Her obsession with Gabriel being special was about her own stupid meaningless snow globe-filled life.

It didn't occur to Elle at the moment, however, that her father's disapproving cruelty was also just a reflection of his impossibly high expectations of her.

"He is happy," she snapped out. "Didn't you just hear what he said? He's happy with me."

"He only thinks he's happy. A woman like you will only lead him to disappointment and pain, and who do you think will be here to take care of him once that happens?"

Gabriel pulled off his glasses, looking up at his mother in frustration now. "I wish you would stop talking about her, Mom. She's not just some woman I'm living with or something degrading like that, so stop making it out to be something like that. I love her, okay?"

He had been so worked up; he hadn't even realized the words that had slipped out of his mouth. He hadn't even said them to Elle in private yet, he had been too afraid she'd think it be too soon for things like that. But they were out now, and there was no taking them back.

"You love me?" she blurted out with wonder, all of her previous anger and frustration dissipating, just like that.

She blinked at him once, twice, her breath stopped short. He said he loved me.

It was like... she exhaled whatever air was left in her lungs. Not even her dad ever...

She didn't bother containing herself-and she would have, if things had been different, but these weeks with Gabriel had presented her a freedom to feel exactly what she was feeling without an ultimate fear of rejection-with this one exception. She'd been afraid he hadn't felt the same way and to be honest, she hadn't even been sure what she was feeling... but what else could it be?

She launched herself into his arms, his mother be damned. It's not like she mattered at this point, at least to Elle.

"I love you too," she whispered into his shoulder.

Gabriel wrapped his arms around Elle tightly, ignoring the judgmental looks his mother was shooting at both of them. For once, he could honestly care less about what his mother thought right now.

He ran his fingers through her hair, pressing a soft, chaste kiss against her lips. This wasn't at all how he had planned on telling her, but she returned his feelings, and that's all that really mattered, in the long run.

Virginia clucked her tongue in a disapproving manner. "You have to be careful, Gabriel, she's only going to break your heart in the long run."

She kissed him softly back, clinging to his sweater with a bright smile. At his mother's words, her smile lowered a fraction, and she flicked her eyes to Virginia for just as short a time, her expression darkening.

Moment ruiner.

"Wrong," she clipped out (as if that was the last word-and according to Elle, it was), and sat back, unable to wipe the smile off of her face. She pressed her leg up against his under the table, unwilling to sever all contact.

Gabriel sighed softly, resting his leg back against Elle's. The contact was a welcome comfort. He looked up at his mother. "I really wish you would give her a chance, Mom. You don't even know her. I'd really like the two of you to get along."

"I don't have to know her to know bad news when I see it, Gabriel," Virginia insisted.

"This is why we can't have nice things," Elle replied sarcastically, sighing, and picked up one of Gabriel's tools to absentmindedly turn it over in her hands.

She probably wasn't helping, but whatever. Clearly this couldn't be helped. She was a gold-digging slut-bitch monster of all unholiness, and there was nothing she could do about it. She'd tried being nice.

Gabriel took the tool from Elle before sliding his glasses back on. He might as well finish fixing the clock before he left, at the very least.

"You know, I was talking to Mr. Williams, the nice man who lives down the hall?" Virginia interjected, breaking the lull. "He said he could probably get you a job at his law firm, you should give him a call."

Gabriel rolled his eyes. "For the last time mom, I have a job. One I like. I have a girlfriend, and a job, and a life I like." And a hunger to kill people, but he didn't mention that. "Just be happy for me. Let that be enough."

Jesus, this woman never let up. She wasn't sure how Gabriel dealt with it for so many years. Elle folded her hands on the table and darted her eyes around the apartment, avoiding Virginia pointedly. "How's that clock looking?" she asked Gabriel, eager to at least change the subject, if not leave.

"The gears were just a little out of tune," He replied, focusing on the detailed work. He could see how all the gears worked. Everything in its right place.

Just like Bria-

He wasn't going to think about that.

"You really should try to take care better care of this, Mom. It's a beautiful piece."

Virginia waved it off. "Clocks were always more of your father's thing."

Elle again, ignored Virginia's comment, considering it was just another slight at the fact clocks were obviously Gabriel's thing too.

She propped her chin in her hands and watched as he worked, so carefully and focused. Elle was sure watching anyone else would be immensely boring, but when Gabriel did it... she couldn't help but be attracted to his single-minded determination. It turned her on, plain and simple.

"I love watching you work," she said, and slyly rubbed her leg against his.

A shiver ran down his spine as her leg rubbed against him. Was she really hitting on him in front of his mother? There was something so wrong about the situation that made it almost appealing...

But he shook his mind of such thoughts and focused on his work until it was finally fixed. He closed the clock back up and went to hang it back on the wall. "It should be working in perfect time now, Mom." He hesitated for a moment. "Speaking of time... we probably should head out soon."

Virginia frowned. "But Gabriel, you just got here."

Elle jumped up at Gabriel's suggestion, so quick she almost overturned the chair. "Well, it was nice to finally meet you," she said with a practiced smile, and walked over to take Gabriel's hand. "Maybe we can have lunch or something soon."

Or not.

"Maybe." But Virginia's voice did not sound encouraging on the manner.

Gabriel let go of Elle's hand to approach his mother, leaning in to kiss her on the cheek. "I'll come by again soon." But the next time, he'd leave Elle at home, most likely.

He made his way back to Elle, taking her hand once more as she led her out of the apartment, closing the door behind them.

Elle heaved a great breath as they made their way down the hall, stealing a few glances at Gabriel's profile. "Should I say it, or do you want to?" she finally asked, and then went ahead unprompted. "That was awful."

He nodded a little in agreement. "...I knew it probably wouldn't go well, but I didn't think it would go that badly." He squeezed her hand a little. "I should have warned you about how..." Judgmental, protective, possessive, any of those adjectives fit. "Difficult my mom can be sometimes."

She hummed in agreement. "Understatement of the year," she said, and let go of his hand to snake her arms around his middle, ducking under his arm. "But something good came out of it," she said with a bright grin, leaning her head up on his shoulder.

He was about to ask what, when he remembered what they had inadvertently ended up admitting to one another. He smiled, letting his arm drape over her as they walked down the hall to the elevator.

"That's true, something good did come of it."

It seemed strange to him that she could love him back. Too good to be true.

She beamed-despite everything that had transpired and the amount of times she had been directly and indirectly called a slut in the past hour, she was practically floating. "Wanna have sex in the elevator?"

It seemed like the right thing to do at the moment.

He stopped mid-step.

Did she just-

Why was he still surprised when she did things like this?

He kind of did want to though.

"What if my mother needs to come down for something, or something...?" he asked awkwardly, not wanting to say yes right away.

"So what if she does," she said deviously, and pressed up against him, nearly purring at his warmth. She reached up on her toes to nuzzle into his neck. "Anyone could find us. That's the fun part."

A soft gasp escaped his lips as she pressed against him. On the one hand, his mother might die of shock if she caught them, on the other hand... well, it was still a very tempting idea.

"You know, I never would have done something like this before," he finally said, his way of letting her know he was good with the idea as he pressed the button of the elevator.

"You never had me before," she retorted, and giddily grabbed his hand and pulled him into the elevator when it dinged open, walking backwards until her back was against the wall. "So, how do you want me?" she asked in a deliberately low voice before the doors closed behind them.

As the doors closed behind them Gabriel approached Elle, an almost smirk spreading across his lips as he placed a hand on each side of her and cornered her against the wall. He pressed his lips against hers, running his tongue against her lips.

"Any way I can have you," he whispered in a husky tone.

She flushed hot as he cornered her, and let out a small greedy whimper as his tongue brushed up against her lips; she parted them and copied his caress, adding in a little spark and slipping her hands beneath his shirt.

She pulled away only to run her nails down his lean stomach, fingers playing with but not opening his belt buckle. "So that would be about... every which way?"

He groaned out as she sparked him, her hands brushing against his skin. He could feel himself growing hard against her. His hands slipped underneath her dress, one slipping between her panties to tease against her entrance.

"Yes," he gasped. "Every way I can."

Of course, an elevator ride probably wouldn't provide the time, but it still remained true.

"I guess you better get started," she challenged with a simper, and rocked her hips against his hand, desperate for friction. She slowly slipped his belt off, unhooking it and tugging, unzipping him and pulling out his erection to hold it firmly.

"I guess I should," he muttered softly, pushing up her dress a little more before moving her panties aside. He hissed as she grabbed his erection. As the elevator dinged with each floor, he knew they wouldn't have as much time for foreplay as usual, and gently moved her hand aside. He pressed his lips against hers, biting down on her bottom lip as he pressed inside of her.

She gasped at the pressure, and dug her nails hard into his shoulders, pushing herself up on the bar against her back to wrap her legs tight around his waist. It wasn't comfortable, and it wasn't exactly guaranteed to keep her up, but the feel of him pushing inside of her made everything else irrelevant.

He brought his hands down to grasp her thighs, trying to support her as best he could as he thrust into her, a little rougher and quicker than usual.

He was so focused on their actions that he didn't even hear the doors open until he heard something drop behind them, and a shocked voice exclaim.

"GABRIEL. I KNEW SHE WAS A HARLOT."

It was... his mother.

Oh god.

His mother.

His mother found him having sex.

In an elevator.

He could have died.

Elle, on the other hand, had gone from pure bliss to... even purer bliss in two seconds flat.

She clutched at Gabriel's shoulders and held onto his waist tighter, so she didn't end up falling on her ass. She took one look at Virginia's horrified face and started laughing-deep, rumbling, shaking laughs that quickly escalated into mad, loud giggles.

"Mom," Gabriel squeaked in embarrassment. He was well past the age where this sort of thing should be happening to him.

But before he could say anything else, Virginia was already running off, muttering some prayer for his soul underneath her breath.

He looked back at Elle, glaring at her a little. "It's not that funny."

She squeaked and pressed her face into his neck, unable to stop despite his disapproving glower.

"It... was... really... funny," she gasped out between laughs. "Her... face." She saw it in her mind again, and it only prompted another fit of giggles.

"You wouldn't think it was funny if it was your mother," he replied, his voice a little bit darker now as he thrust into her. Despite being caught by his mother, he wanted to finish what he started.

Her laughter quickly abated into a few surprised chokes as he stroked into her. "No," she agreed, suddenly sober, the word drawn out and melding into a high-pitched moan.

She didn't bother reminding him her mother was dead, because-who the hell cared about the technicalities when he was fucking her like that? Instead she held onto him tighter and tried desperately to rock against his thrusts without falling.

He gripped her thighs a little tighter now, tight enough to leave bruises as he pushed deeper and harder inside of her. He wasn't usually quite so rough, but he was kind of pissed off this time around. And she didn't seem to mind.

Elle was far from minding-his harsh hands and rough thrusts were more than welcome, and she threw her head back into the wall and couldn't help but cry out his name a little too loud. She really hated that she could hardly move, but on the other hand, letting him take over completely wasn't a bad thing at all.

He pressed his lips against her neck, biting down as he continued his thrusts. It wouldn't take much longer, he didn't think. The rough, quick, angry motions of this tryst were sending him over the edge quicker than normal.

She didn't think she was going to come, not so soon, but at this point she didn't even care (and he had the rest of the night to make it up to her). She was too busy marveling at the exquisite pain he was inflicting on her, and the dark pleasure that accompanied it. She cradled his head to her neck when he bit down, and struggling to keep her eyes open.

She'd get hers just watching him let go completely in her arms. She wanted him to come for her.

He usually wasn't so selfish when he was with her. He usually tried to make sure she got off as well, but he was too lost in what he was doing at this point to give it much thought or consideration. He gave a few more hard thrusts until he bit into her neck again, nails digging into her thighs as the white flash of his climax overcame him.

She whimpered out a little cry and tightened her legs around his waist, pushing him deep inside of her as he came. She could feel it as the sound ripped from her throat, the warmth of his release pulsing into her. "Gabriel," she murmured, shakily, and held him close, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Elle." He pulled away a little, looking at the bite marks he had left on her. He almost felt guilty. He hadn't meant to hurt her. He hadn't meant to lose control like that. He leaned in, licking at the marks gently. "You're alright, aren't you?"

"More than," she muttered, and shivered as his tongue licked and soothed the marks he'd left. She was more than all right; she was simultaneously so turned on and content that every brush of his body and tongue quickened her breath. She clung to his neck and couldn't help but grind her hips against his, just once, involuntarily.

He gasped softly as she moved against him. "I'm glad to hear that." He brought a hand down, pushing against her clit as he pulled out of her. Even though he knew they couldn't linger in here much longer, it felt unfair that he had gotten off when she didn't.

She groaned and gasped, her body fluidly arcing into his touch-she was so damn sensitive at the moment she felt like her electricity was on the fritz, or something equally as uncontrollable.

She seemed so turned on, in a way he hadn't quite seen her before. It was kind of... fascinating to watch, really. Maybe he needed to learn to let go of his inhibitions more often. He began to roughly rub against her clit, eyes watching her carefully.

She could hardly take how intently he was focused on her, and she fleetingly had a silly little thought that she was a broken watch he was trying to fix, but her amusement was dwarfed by his stare and his insistent, rough touch that sent dizzying shocks of pleasure all the way to the tips of her toes.

He certainly always caught on fast how she wanted to be touched.

She rocked and didn't bother tempering her moans, her eyes eventually fluttering closed, unable to stay open for long.

Well, at least there was little worry of his mother finding them again. She was probably locked in her bedroom, praying for his soul.

Of course, his mother was the last person he was thinking of right now. His mind was completely on Elle. Her loud moans only encouraged him to keep going, dropping to his knees to brush his mouth against her thigh, biting on it as his fingers continued their work.

She shivered as his lips touched her, a shiver that rapidly turned into an electric shudder when he bit down, arcs of lightning zapping over her skin quick. Maybe she was on the fritz. She was growing closer fast, coiling up in a fuzzy haze of pleasure, her breath nearly stopped.

Everything was just so... good, and if he hadn't have been holding her up, Elle was sure she would have collapsed as the first wave of pleasure possessed her, and then a shorter, just as strong wave crashed into her, and brought her down slowly, gasping for air.

The electricity running from her body stung against his fingers and lips, but he didn't let that deter him. He smirked against her skin as she came, holding onto her to make sure she didn't fall. He brought himself up, brushing his lips against hers.

"Better?"

She made an affirmative sound and leaned against him, nestling into his arms and rubbing her nose into the crook of his neck, a bit robbed of speech for a few moments. "Better," she murmured.

"I'm glad." As he looked over her body, he couldn't help but feel a little proud of the bite marks and bruises he had left on her. She was his after all, why shouldn't he leave his mark on her? He finally pulled away, grinning as he pulled up his pants, doing them back up. "Think we've held up the elevator long enough?"

She slumped against the wall as he pulled away to buckle his pants, smiling with exhilaration and admiring his broad grin. "And if I said no?" she asked teasingly-although she might be up for more later, she did actually need a bit of rest first. Especially after that, plus actually getting back home.

"Well, I think you're going to have to wait anyways," he replied with a small laugh. "I'm spent," he admitted as he smoothed out his shirt and sweater vest before offering her a hand.

"Thank god," she sighed with relief, and took his hand only to lean against him, partly out of necessity. Her knees felt wobbly. "I can hardly stand."

He laughed a little more, wrapping an arm around her waist for support. "Did you want to get a taxi home instead of walking?"

"It's not too far. Just don't let go and I'll be fine," she assured him, and gratefully tucked herself into his shoulder.

"I think I can manage that," he reassured her with another smile. Okay, so the stuff with his mother had gone beyond bad, but overall... he couldn't feel too broken up about it at the moment.

"You're not too upset, right?" she started, too content to be seriously concerned about his mother. "About your mom hating my harlot gold-digging guts?"

"Well... to be honest, I expected her to hate you," he admitted with a shrug. "She's never liked me having other women in my life."

"I gathered," she remarked dryly. "I knew she was old-fashioned, but she was... really pushy with you." She broached the subject tentatively.

Gabriel tensed a little at that. "...She's always been that way. Ever since my father... left, I'm all she has now."

She felt him tense, and hugged him reassuringly. "When did he leave?" she asked in a small voice.

"...A while ago, when I was still a kid. Left for cigarettes and never came back. He couldn't even be original about it." His voice only had a tinge of bitterness. "I think that's why she really hates me being a watchmaker... it reminds her of him. Too painful."

Elle worried her bottom lip, for a moment almost sympathizing... but still. They way she talked to him... it would drive anyone crazy.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. "My mom died when I was a kid, too."

He wondered what was worse. If a parent dies, they still love you. But his father... his father just left. He was pretty sure that was worse, but he didn’t say it. Didn’t want to disregard her feelings.

"So I only have a mother, and you only have a father. It's like... opposite sides of the same coin."

"Like we fit," she continued with a smile, happy someone understood, just a little bit.

"It's because we do," he replied, giving her a small squeeze. It was nice to see someone was on the same page as him, at least for the most part.